The old man, also known as General Lou, coughed and said, "Miss Jana, as per our agreement, you need to tell us something about the Primordial World every day."
The Mermaid tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said, "Today I will talk about the World Supreme Treasures."
Upon hearing the term "Supreme Treasure," everyone suddenly perked up.
The Mermaid slowly began, "In every Civilization World that descends into the Primordial World, some treasures with magical power are bound to be born."
General Lou asked, "Why are treasures born? What is the specific principle?"
The Mermaid shook her head, "Even the Mei Jia Civilization I'm from doesn't know the principle, but I've heard one theory that it might be due to the disturbance of the Primordial Law."
General Lou nodded, "Please continue."
The Mermaid continued, "As I've said before, objects with super power generally come with negative effects, which is why they're called 'Deceitful Artifacts.' The use of a Deceitful Artifact always comes at a price."
General Lou nodded again.
He seemed to recall something, a trace of fear flashed in his eyes, perhaps having witnessed the negative effects of a Deceitful Artifact.
The Mermaid changed her tone, "But Supreme Treasures are different, they possess magical power yet have no negative effects whatsoever."
General Lou's eyes lit up, "Good stuff."
He asked, "If that's all, I'm afraid it's not enough to be called a Supreme Treasure, is it?"
The Mermaid nodded, "Of course, Supreme Treasures have a characteristic where initially their power isn't strong, and may even be quite weak.
"However, over time, they spontaneously absorb power and become increasingly stronger, to the point of being terrifying."
The Mermaid dropped a bombshell, "To my knowledge, every living being that obtains a Supreme Treasure has more than a fifty percent chance of becoming a 'Venerable' if they don't die."
General Lou was extremely moved.
Several soldiers also looked eager.
They certainly knew what being a Venerable meant.
To put it bluntly, every Venerable is the trump card of their respective civilization.
The more trump cards, the stronger the civilization.
General Lou calmed down and asked, "Miss Jana, could you tell us how to identify Supreme Treasures?"
The Mermaid answered, "It's simple, just drip a drop of blood, and the soul will spontaneously fuse with the Supreme Treasure, allowing the fuser to store the treasure inside themselves at any time, which is why many civilizations call Supreme Treasures 'Soul Sacred Artifacts.'"
General Lou didn't speak, but a hint of amazement flashed in his eyes.
The Mermaid added, "Moreover, Supreme Treasures have a flaw, if the fuser dies, the treasure will permanently disappear."
She paused and smiled, "Of course, for the fuser, this is good news because no one can steal their treasure."
General Lou nodded, "That makes sense."
He had another question, "Could you teach us how to find Supreme Treasures?"
The Mermaid chuckled, "Find? You're overthinking!"
General Lou was puzzled, "Why?"
The Mermaid said, "Supreme Treasures are a blessing from the Primordial World, do you think you can just find them at will?"
She raised her voice, "Our Mei Jia Civilization researched them and found that obtaining a Supreme Treasure depends entirely on luck, beyond that there is no method to find a Supreme Treasure.
"To acquire one Supreme Treasure is already an unparalleled stroke of luck.
"Getting two Supreme Treasures is so rare that our Mei Jia Civilization has only ever heard of one such case in exchanges with hundreds of civilizations over so many years.
"This incredibly fortunate person eventually became a top powerhouse who made a name for themselves across dozens of World Groups."
General Lou asked, "What are World Groups?"
The Mermaid replied, "They are clusters composed of many Civilization Worlds, with a World Group containing as few as over a hundred civilizations, or as many as three hundred."
General Lou sighed, "I understand now."
He comprehended what the other party meant, that among thousands of Civilization Worlds with countless intelligent beings in the trillions, there is only one case of obtaining two Supreme Treasures.
As for getting three Supreme Treasures, even the Mei Jia Civilization has never heard of it.
General Lou asked the last question, "How many Supreme Treasures can a Civilization World birth?"
The Mermaid replied, "Canglan Star is a medium-sized Civilization World, and typically it would give rise to seven to ten Supreme Treasures."
General Lou was somewhat disappointed, "That few?"
The Mermaid laughed, "If there were a lot, would they still be called Supreme Treasures?"
She looked a bit proud, "Our Mei Jia Civilization is a large Civilization World, and to date, it has birthed eighteen Supreme Treasures."
General Lou looked envious.
The Mermaid made an additional note, "According to our understanding, a civilization, once fully integrated into the Primordial World past fifty years, will not give birth to any new Supreme Treasures."
General Lou asked, "Why?"
The Mermaid said, "There is a theory that Supreme Treasures are governed by a law of primordial grace, and after fifty years, the Primordial will reclaim this grace."
The underlying meaning is—any Supreme Treasures not yet found will completely disappear after fifty years.
General Lou gave a military salute, "Thank you for your guidance!"
The other party came from a powerful civilization, imparting much valuable knowledge to the people of Great Xia without asking for any reward.
He felt the gesture was fitting for the other party.
The Mermaid didn't say anything else, retreating into the water on her own.
General Lou thought for a few seconds, then waved his hand, "Let's go."
*
Linjiang City.
Yang Fan lazily leaned against the sofa and began to inventory the supplies within the Space Pearl.
"Ten tons of rice should be enough; two thousand cans are a bit less, I should have bought another thousand cans of fruit and beef stew.
"It's a pity that the authorities have started strictly controlling supplies, now even if I want to buy them, I can't."
Just now, he checked online, and all the canned foods on every platform have been taken down, clearly controlled by the authorities.
Only pet food is still being sold online.
But Yang Fan has no intention of eating cat or dog food.
"A thousand cases of mineral water, a thousand cases of various drinks, totaling twenty-four thousand bottles, if faced with an emergency, just water and drinks alone can last a long time."
He deliberately chose many sugary drinks.
With sugar intake, the body has a source of energy, and one won't starve.
"Jerky, chocolate, milk candy, wafer biscuits, glutinous rice cakes, pickled chicken feet, duck necks, duck carcasses... I spent three hundred thousand on snacks and still feel like it's not enough!"
Yang Fan regretted a bit, "With abnormal climate becoming more frequent, there will surely be a significant reduction in grain production; buying snacks will only get harder, I should have bought a hundred thousand more then!"
To give a simple example.
The pickled chicken feet he bought online was nine yuan eighty a bag, but now the price has risen to eighteen yuan eighty.
Based on the current trend, it seems highly likely that they will rise to thirty or forty yuan in the future.
It's foreseeable that ordinary people might truly not be able to afford snacks in the future.
Yang Fan's gaze jumped to another corner.
There were forty large freezers, each with a capacity of up to three hundred liters.
The freezers were filled with frozen pork, beef, chicken, duck, and fish, even thousands of popsicles were stored.
At that time, Yang Fan had spent over eight hundred thousand in one go to hoard these goods, almost equal to the price of a house.
To cover the existence of the Space Pearl, he deliberately took over a small poorly-run supermarket, incurring a "huge loss."
He doesn't think that authorities have the leisure to put effort into investigating the closure of a small supermarket.
Here must be an extra point.
The Space Pearl possesses a very miraculous property.
It slows temperature changes of both low-temperature and high-temperature items placed inside the space.
Yang Fan had done an experiment before; frozen meat at minus thirty degrees after thirty days only increased by one degree.
Now that the Space Pearl has become stronger, the time it takes to rise one degree has been extended to fifty-three days.
In other words.
To rise from minus thirty degrees to zero degrees would take nearly one thousand six hundred days, or over four years.
This is a shocking thermal retention ability.
Super energy-saving!
Super environmentally friendly!
Because of this.
Yang Fan dared to stockpile so much frozen meat.
If by any chance the freezer temperature rises, this is easily solved by taking the freezer out, plugging it in, waiting for the temperature to drop back down, then putting it back.
No electricity?
No problem!
He had already prepared for extreme situations, preparing a set of solar panels and an inverter, so without power, he could find a place to generate electricity.
Yang Fan resumed checking other supplies.
"A hundred down jackets, four thousand pairs of pants, twelve hundred pairs of shoes, twenty thousand pairs of socks... three thousand bottles of shampoo, two thousand bottles of body wash, thirty thousand boxes of toothpaste...
"Cold medicine, antibiotics, vitamins, calcium tablets—just about enough... sugar, salt, soy sauce, vinegar... forty pots, fifty kitchen knives; in critical moments, pots are shields, knives are weapons... no matter how skilled, they fear kitchen knives!
He confirmed there were no oversights, nodding, "Carrying a big supermarket with me, I'm not afraid even if there's a famine!"
"Too bad that such curios as Space Pearls, I've only found three; if only I could get my hands on ten or eight, it would be great."